Purdue Pharma, which introduced OxyContin in the late 1990s and aggressively marketed it, would cease to exist. It assets would be transferred to a new company called Knoa Pharma. That company, which would be owned by creditors, would manufacture addiction treatment and opioid reversal medicines at no profit.

Purdue Pharma is inextricably linked with the opioid crisis. Owned by the Sackler family, the company is known for aggressively and deceptively marketing opioids - OxyContin in particular - to prescribing doctors.

Purdue Pharma manufactures pain medicines such as hydromorphone, oxycodone, fentanyl, codeine, and hydrocodone. It makes drugs such as MS Contin, OxyContin, and Ryzolt. In 1972, Contin (a controlled drug-release system) was developed.

The Sackler family The Sackler family is an American family who owned the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and later founded Mundipharma. Purdue Pharma, and some members of the family, have faced lawsuits regarding overprescription of addictive pharmaceutical drugs, including OxyContin.

Contrary to the statements of Purdue recent evidence has shown that oxycontin is addictive and has played a significant role in the devastating epidemic of opioid addiction that has gripped the U.S. in recent years.

OxyContin, a trade name for the narcotic oxycodone hydrochloride, is a painkiller available in the United States only by prescription.

Purdue estimates that its bankruptcy settlement, approved by a U.S. bankruptcy judge in 2021, would provide $10 billion in value to its creditors, including state and local governments, individual victims of addiction, hospitals, and others who have sued the company.

How much is the Sackler family still worth? Even after Purdue Pharma's bankruptcy, the family still has billions. In December 2020, taking into account the fines that the Sacklers have already paid out as settlements, Forbes estimates that the family (around 40 members) is worth about $10.8 billion.

Oxycodone is used to relieve acute, severe pain. It is recommended if your doctor decides other treatments cannot effectively manage your pain, or you can't tolerate those treatments. Oxycodone is not usually recommended for the treatment of chronic pain.

“The story is really tracking true,” Macy told Healthline. She notes that many of the characters in the show - from Sister Beth Davies, who runs the Addiction Education Center in downtown Pennington Gap, Virginia, to Purdue Pharma head Richard Sackler - are real people.

In May of this year, a U.S. appeals court signed off on the settlement, which provided legal protection to the Sacklers in exchange for $6 billion. The ruling reversed a previous lower court decision, which removed legal protection for the family.

Court grants Sackler family immunity in exchange for $6 billion opioid settlement | CNN Business.